My Mother In Law, who is also our babysitter during the day will only feed my baby jar food, and he is 12 Mo?

Question

I have a few dilemas I need to deal with and nothing seems to be helping. My mother in law, who i love dearly, is my daycare. My baby just turned 1 yesterday. Ive been feeding him pretty much whatever we have and is able to chew and on the nights we have say steak, he gets one of the Gerber Graduates meals. I picked him up the other day to take him to the Dr and when i brought him back I said, I think he is ready for lunch. She pulled out a Stage 2 jar of food and that was what she was going to feed him. Im really concerened especially since he is going to be going off of formula. I want him to be healthy. I want him to have fruit and vegetables with each meal. Not just a jar of Green Beans. She says she is scared of him choking but I have fed him plenty while she is around so she sees he is fully capable of eating real food. (He has 8 Teeth BTW...) I talked to my husband about it and of course, its his mom, So...You know how that went. I need to know if i am being silly.

Answer 1

You need to maybe pack food for him for a few days so she knows WHAT you want him to be fed....

Answer 2

Do not make this an issue, let her feed what she is comfortable with and you feed what you want when he is with you. Evenings and week ends, and holidays. It is not necessary to have fruits and vegetables at each meal, balance diet could be achieved over a set period of time like whole week or even month.

Just watch the baby grow, I am sure as she sees fit she will feed baby other things from the jar also, so get some jar of whatever other stuff you want and stock the pantry for your mother in law.

Most baby will not touch the jar if they take liking for the table food. But they are all individuals and behave differently.

Answer 3

She is probably being over-cautious and as she said scared of him choking. She may also not want to deal with the extra unpredictibility and mess of turning him loose with finger foods.

Try leaving her a list of the jar foods you want him to have and let her do the Gerber graduates while she is there at least until she gets more comfortable with feeding him table foods.

I bet there is another post on here by some mom whose MIL is feeding table food when she is trying to stick to baby food. I know my sister-in-law, whose baby will be 1 in a couple of weeks is way behind where I would be in introducing foods to her, but she would have a fit if we snuck some to her!

Count your blessings that she is around and making herself available to babysit. Many MIL's nowadays either live too far away or are still involved in careers of their own and not able to help in this way!

Keep feeding him finger foods in front of her so that she can see exactly how you do it and see it working. Eventually she will get on board!

Answer 4

lol im at the opposite end of the spectrum from you on this one...both my mother and MIL asked me when my son was 3 months old (was thier first time seeing him since he was born in Japan) why he wasnt eating baby food yet. Of course I guess Im a bad mother because I actually listened to them instead of reading the books (=O how dare i???) All 4 of my kids have been fed things WAY in advance. Im guessing that your son is the first grandchild?? Ok let me try to give you some advice here (although like i said ive never had even close to this issue) Talk to your MIL (calmly and rationally of course) and let her know that until now your son has been depending on formula for the majority of his nutrients and calories.....hes about to go off that formula so he needs to eat a balanced diet now just like an adult does. Offer to send prepared meals to her house for awhile until she gets used to what he can eat (and make sure for the first week or so you send really safe things with low risk of choking like graduates or something) you can just get those plastic storage containers that are sectioned and fill it with things like diced veggies, fruits, pastas, rice.....and things like that so she can see what it is you give him. possibly also talk to your pediatrician or call the local health dept or wic office and see if they have any brochures on table feeding that you can have to give to her so she can see the importance of it and also see how dedicated you are to doing what is right.

Answer 5

get her a majic bullet or food processor,

and send her the left overs, tell her stick it in the blender

and let him have at it,

when you drop him off in the morning,
grab a banana, stick him in the high chair and throw a few cheerios down and let him have fun

leave

this way she can see that he is FINE and your fine about it

when you come home from work,
BRING DINNER to her house, eat over for 2 nights for the next 2-3 weeks
and just feed the baby infront of her

so she gets comfortable with the idea

and finally , send her to a class,
the AMERICAN RED CROSS has CPR classes for adults infants and children, and First AID
I paid 70 buck for 3 classes it might be less for one
but its gonna give her confidence,
and its only for a few hours in the evening or even on weekends ---6-10 pm thats what I did

This way she knows how to react in a crisis situation,

and lastly tell her that the doctor says that he can develop FOOD AVERSION if you don't introduce the foods in a timely manner,

Which is true.

Trust me this will work, you just need to encourage her

Go to yahoo, and type in American Red Cross in your town and state,

Good luck

Meg

Answer 6

Save part of your dinner each night for the following days lunch. Tell her that is what she should be feeding him for lunch. Also bring some of the Gerber Graduates meals on the days you have things you can not save or he can't have. Tell her the doctor says he should be eatting solid foods at his age to keep him up on his weight.
Also if you can afford to pay the cost of an American Red Cross cpr/first aid class for infants and toddlers. This might help her comfort level while shes watching your son. Suggest that she go to one.

Answer 7

Wow that's only incorrect. the only element you could say to her is that if she does not honor your needs with regards on your toddler, then you definitely won't leave your toddler together with her. I advise in all honesty if she's doing that understanding the mummy and dad disapprove then what else will she do this the mummy and dad do no longer approve of particularly while they are actually not around. As a mom you need to positioned your foot down in any different case grandmothers continually win. only tell her she raised her teenagers how she needed and now it's time to enable you do the comparable and you do no longer in basic terms like the assumption of your toddler ingesting food out of somebody else's mouth grandmother or all and sundry. Wow it somewhat is only incorrect. She has to appreciate your needs or she'll lose time together with her grandkids. it truly is her selection. sturdy luck

Answer 8

Yuck. A lot of jarred baby food is overripe, stuff that we would not buy at the store, then highly heat processed so there's hardly any nutrient value. My babies eat whatever they can pick up chew. Choking is way more of a problem with spoon-feeding, because the food is oftentime placed too far back on the tongue. Here's a link I think you will like:

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html#choke

Answer 9

She may be your M/L but this is still your child. If she doesnt want to listen to you, put the burden on the doctor. Tell her that the doctor wants your son on table food because he needs more solids and variety to his diet in order to get enough nutrients. Moms never usually question the doctor. Offer to provide some things to help her. Gerber graduates are a good start. He also needs to be working on his motor skills which include picking up food and feeding himself. Try to find some little first spoons for him to begin doing this. Quite frankly its easier to just spoon food into a child because its less messy and it goes faster but they have to start learning how to eat table food by feeding themselves. Its very important to their development. Can you find any online articles to support this. Tell her the doctor recommended that you read these articles so you would understand and that you were sharing them with her.

Answer 10

It's a valid concern on her part regardless of what the outcome is. Try sitting with her online and watch videos on how to aid a choking child or take child First Aid classes from the American Red Cross. This is what me and my mother in law are planning on doing because she and I both have this fear.

Answer 11

no, you are not being silly. But you have to have more communication with the M/L. Her being afraid of him choking, well i think that is a resonable concern for her to stick with the jar foods. Why dont you start packin his lunches and snacks for him, that may help her know what kind of things he can eat and releive some pressure off her shoulders.